I'm so upset right now.
Last night my father in law backed into our van with his super huge truck and camper trailer. It essentially peeled the whole drivers side of the van up. The damage extends from mid drivers door to the rear 1/4 panel with most of the damage in the slider door; which is not a cheap replacement i'm sure.
He has insurance but I'm worried the insurance co. will total it and not give me what we owe on the van still (6.3K). Right now it BB for just barely over 7k for a pre owned 2005 DGC in good condition.

I'm so sad right now and my wife is totally devastated. Not even sure why I'm posting this other than to hear from others that may have had similar accidents and had to deal with insurance companies. Noone was in the van when it got hit, it was parked in our driveway, raining, dark, etc. He didn't even know he hit it. We heard it happen, ran out and he had alread pulled forward and started putting blocks under the wheels to level the camper. I was like, "OMG! WTF!!! You just hit the van!". He looked up and said, "Huh?"...

Fortunately noone was hurt and that's what's important.

 

I would be so pissed!

 

unfortunitely this stuff can happen by mistake. i know i backed up a big truck trailer into my dads driveway which was totally dark. cousins where visiting and had a brand new jeep. i ended up smashing up the rear door pretty bad. paid for repair and unfortunitely that was all.

 

Id be pullin every dollar out of someones *** wit a red hot poker. Same color as mine. I understand things happen but thats not a small repair plus paint. I mean i painted my whole car after my last accident and it looks awsome. Painted the van too. Besides the point id be freakin pissed even at family. I pay good money to have a decent car. S.u.v. and van. Lol at least no one was hurt thats all that matters. Right?

 

I know how you and wife feels. Been there, As long as no one was hurt. Thats a good thing. Remember the cars and truck can be replaced, But your love ones can't. I hope you will post and keep everyone updated.

 

Thanks for the support everyone.
Van is still sitting in the driveway, but the other party's insurance rep called me yesterday and gave me the green light to find a body shop. Of course they have their own "preferred" auto body shop but I'm currently in the process of looking into other shops in town (which there are a lot of considering the size of our city).
Hard to decide, I think ultimately, without first-hand feedback from others in my area, it's really a crap shoot. I've hit Google where applicable trying to narrow down a decision based on positive reviews; thats all I can do at this point...
pick a shop.
No estimate yet so I still don't know if they'll total it or not.

I'll keep this updated and post up more pics as things move along.

 

Update:
On Tuesday I finally decided on an auto body shop in town and called Progressive to get the ball rolling. Within a couple hrs it was being towed away...
Yesterday I got a call from both the insurance and auto body estimators. The total bill is coming in at $4,000 and Progressive is picking up the tab including 4 weeks car rental.
Repairs include r&r drivers' side door handle, r&r slider door (including cutting out and replacing the C-pillar), rear quarter panel, repair of some rear bumper damage and paint on the drivers' side.

I was worried they'd scrap it and I'd get less than I still owe but that's not the case.

Yaye us!

 

Great news.